The hatred and racism from the far-right continues bubbling over the top. Listen to the leader of the Grand Old Bigots, Rush Limbaugh, from his June 26 program. “Barack Obama is nothing more than an old school African colonial” who “wants to turn this into a third world country,” spews Limbaugh. He is “more African in his roots than he is American” and is “behaving like an African colonial despot.” Pathetic, but predictable. Thanks to Media Matters.
With most of our celebrity-crazed media and public focused on the death of Michael Jackson, I guess it was the perfect time for a Friday night news dump like this:
“Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.
Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war.”
Then came the non-denial denial and the and semantic games from the White House:
“White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said that there is no executive order and that the administration has not decided whether to issue one. But one administration official suggested that the White House is already trying to build support for an order.”
Notice the difference in language? There “is” no executive order. The WaPo article didn’t say there “is” an order, it said officials “are crafting” language for an executive order. I had hoped we were through with these kinds of slippery word games.
But the statement by “one administration official” gives it away. I assume the White House wouldn’t waste their time “trying to build support” for an action that they don’t intend to pursue.
There was also this strange claim:
“Civil liberties groups have encouraged the administration, that if a prolonged detention system were to be sought, to do it through executive order,” the official said.”
One such civil liberties group, the Center for Constitutional Rights, told TPM:
“Prolonged imprisonment without trial is exactly the Guantanamo system that the President promised to shut down. Whatever form it takes – from Congress or the President’s pen – it is anathema to the basic principles of American law and the courts will find it unconstitutional.”
“This is not change – this is more of the same. If President Obama issues an executive order authorizing indefinite detention, he’ll be repeating the same mistakes of George Bush, and his policies will be destined to fail as were his predecessor’s. How justice is served in America should not be an open question in a country where we have a rule of law and a time-tested criminal justice system. Throwing people into prison without charge, conviction or providing them with a trial is about as un-American as you can get. While President Obama might be experiencing difficulty with Congress when it comes to implementing his decision to close Guantánamo, the answer is not to issue an executive order authorizing a system which is unconstitutional and counter to the most fundamental American values.”
That doesn’t sound to me like they “encouraged the administration” to “do it through executive order.”
To me this issue, call it indefinite incarceration, preventive detention, or any other name, goes beyond Barack Obama’s presidency, the “war on terror,” or the closing of Guantanamo. This is a fundamental question of what kind of country we are.
We are the United States of America, damn it. We don’t hold people indefinitely without charges and without trials. If we don’t have enough evidence to bring people to trial, or if the evidence we do have was obtained through torture, we release them, plain and simple.
The danger in this is the precedent. What happens the next time we have a President Nixon, who draws up an enemies list and decides to imprison people indefinitely, and what happens if not just alleged terrorists but American citizens are among those “certain people” who are imprisoned based on nothing more than suspicion. His or her reasoning will be, President Bush got away with it, President Obama got away with it, who is going to stop me?
It’s time to put an end to this before it goes any further.
TIME’s Joe Klein had some good advice for John McCain in an appearance on Larry King Live Tuesday night. Advice that also applies to Lindsey Graham, Fred Thompson and the rest of the Republican chorus of bluster and bravado urging President Obama to “do more” about the situation in Iran.
“Be quiet.”
Whatever happened to “politics stops at the waters edge?” I recall not too long ago Republicans saying that criticizing the President’s foreign policy in a time of war amounted to treason. Does that only apply when a Republican is in the Oval Office? Apparently so.
Klein added:
“You don’t need to do this…. What you’re doing is a self-indulgence at this point. Senator McCain, if he’s going to talk about this, should also talk about the fact that the United States supported Saddam Hussein in the Iran/Iraq war for eight years. Every one of those protesters out in the streets, every last one of them believes the United States supplied Saddam Hussein with the poison gas that has debilitated tens of thousands of Iranian men…. They blame us for identifying them as part of the Axis of Evil, with two countries that they disdain, the Iraqis and the North Koreans.”
To go back even further, Iranians also know that it was our CIA who overthrew their democratically elected government in 1953 and put the Shah in power. It was also American presidents who supported the Shah for the next 26 years while his secret police brutalized and terrorized the Iranian people leading up to the 1979 revolution.
And try as McCain might to make the situation in Iran analogous to Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968, and the fall of the Soviet Union, it just isn’t the same.
“Obama’s shades-of-gray approach rejects comparison to an era when Communist bloc dissidents had virtually no access to the Western media and the world was more neatly divided between a pair of superpowers, not complicated by the set of ambitious regional powers such as Iran that the Obama administration is seeking to manage.”
The day following his remarks on Larry King, Klein posted this at Swampland:
“I’ve been receiving a steady stream of favorable emails from Iranian-Americans regarding my appearance on Larry King last night. They’re delighted that I made it clear that Iran is different from the other countries in the region–better educated, more sophisticated, with far greater rights for women (although not nearly enough). And they also appreciated the fact that when King asked me what John McCain should do right now, I said, “Be quiet.”
I have yet to hear what possible good it would do for the President of the United States to encourage the protesters, except to give the Iranian regime a better excuse for killing more of them. McCain’s bleatings are either for domestic political consumption or self-satisfaction, a form of hip-shooting that demonstrates why he would have been a foreign policy disaster had he been elected.
To put it as simply as possible, McCain–and his cohorts–are trying to score political points against the President in the midst of an international crisis. It is the sort of behavior that Republicans routinely call “unpatriotic” when Democrats are doing it. I would never question John McCain’s patriotism, no matter how misguided his sense of the country’s best interests sometimes seems. His behavior has nothing to do with love of country; it has everything to do with love of self.”
I have some advice of my own for Sen. McCain and his cohorts, join Governor Sanford on the Appalachian Trail. In other words, take a hike.
Proving that they have learned absolutely nothing from our experience in Iraq, the neo-conservative interventionists, led by former Republican presidential candidate, Mr. Bomb, Bomb Iran himself, Senator John McCain, are beginning the drumbeat of “do something” following the fraudulent Iranian election.
And naturally the cries of “weak” and “appeaser” in reference to President Obama and his non-interventionist policy are also being heard.
Mitt Romney saying:
“It’s very clear that the president’s policies of going around the world and apologizing for America aren’t working. … Look, just sweet talk and criticizing America is not going to enhance freedom in the world.”
Noted neo-con and former presidential advisor Richard Perle:
“Normally, when you unclench your fist it benefits the hardliners, because Obama appeared to be saying we can do business with you even with your present policies.”
Frank (the president is a closet Muslim) Gaffney:
“It underscores the folly of the president’s basic premise that the problem we have with bad actors around the world is that they don’t understand us. These people are thugs and they have been emboldened by our weakness.”
But President Obama’s course of action is exactly the right one. The Wonk Room explains it best:
“Were the U.S to clumsily wade into this Iranian political crisis, as McCain would have us do, it would support Ahmadinejad’s main arguments against his domestic opponents, and likely provide the perfect pretext for a more intense crackdown. In other words, the preferences of hardliners in Iran and the U.S. are pretty closely aligned here.
As with McCain’s impetuous response to the Georgia crisis last summer, his first reaction to the events in Iran is condemnation and a call to “act.” Fortunately, we have an administration in power that understands that knowing when not to act is as strategically important as knowing when to do so, and that the most productive thing the United States can do for Iran’s reform movement -and human rights- at the moment is to keep itself, to the extent possible, out of the equation.”
Read the words of another well-known “appeaser” and “apologist” and tell me if his views on foreign policy more closely resemble those of President Obama or Senator McCain.
“Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular Nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated.
The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.
The Nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The Government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives.
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.”
Proving that he has absolutely no remorse and accepts no responsibility for his incendiary rhetoric in the death of Dr. Tiller, Bill O’Reilly continues on his “blood is on your hands” tirade. This time the target is Joan Walsh of Salon.
We need to change the last line of our national anthem. No longer are we the home of the brave, we are home of the frightened, cowering in fear. Fear brought on by demagogic Republicans and spineless Democrats who go along so as not to be portrayed by those demagogues as “soft on terror.”
“The Obama administration has all but abandoned plans to allow Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been cleared for release to live in the United States, administration officials said yesterday, a decision that reflects bipartisan congressional opposition to admitting such prisoners but complicates efforts to persuade European allies to accept them.”
I have a message for the demagogues and the jellyfish in Washington, as well as the American people who polls show are so easily manipulated and frightened about releasing the Gitmo detainees, it’s time we man up and accept the responsibility for our actions.
We are the country who captured and incarcerated people for 6 or 7 years without charges, without trials, without proof of any wrongdoing, just the fear of what they might do if not detained, and now the fear of what they might do if released.
Now that our courts have ordered some of them set free, as in the case of the Chinese Uighurs, we are asking Palau and Bermuda to take them. Even though there is a large Uighur community in Virginia who would gladly accept them.
But no, Virginia elected officials, Sen. Jim Webb and Rep. Frank Wolf, one Democrat and one Republican, opposed the Uighurs resettling there “as a matter of national security.” Our national security is threatened by people who have been proven guilty of nothing? Nothing other than being the object of irrational fear stoked by politicians with their collective moistened fingers in the wind.
We are also asking Australia and Germany to accept released detainees but they are understandably balking because we refuse to take any of them ourselves.
Do we owe anything to those we have imprisoned without cause or without due process? If a country held me for 7 years without charges because of mere suspicion would I feel I was owed something on my release? You’re damned right I would.
But that would have to be a country which takes responsibility for it’s wrongdoings and attempts to make amends, not one whose leaders and whose population are afraid of their own shadows.
The words of the Department of Homeland Security report on “Rightwing Extremism” which was released in April, the report which so incensed Republicans and the right-wing media that they demanded and received an apology from DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, are becoming more prescient every day. Just to remind you what it said:
“Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”
Following yesterday’s shootings at the Holocaust Museum, in which a security guard was killed and two others wounded, the number of dead from what some are calling “isolated incidents” by “lone nuts” now stands at five.
Three police officers in Pittsburgh, killed by Richard Poplawski because he feared President Obama was going to take his guns away. Dr. George Tiller at his church in Wichita, Kansas, murdered by anti-abortionist Scott Roeder. Stephen Johns, the guard at the museum, killed yesterday by James W. von Brunn, described by the Washington Post as;
“a longtime, hard-core supremacist whose Internet writings contain extensive, poisonous ravings against Jews and African Americans.”
How many more people have to die before we stop referring to these as isolated incidents and call it what it is, a pattern of domestic terrorism. Domestic terrorism fomented by the constant stream of vitriol by politicians and those in the media whose words incite the less than stable among us to act out their fear, hatred, and racism.
Isolated? Listen as Shepard Smith reads a representative sampling of what he calls the “frightening” e-mails received by Fox News;
They’re baaaaaaaack! As President Obama takes his trip to the Middle East where he will give a speech in Cairo and, as a last-minute add-on, attend a private meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with King Abdullah (where he can undoubtedly bow before the King without photographers present this time) an article from Jake Tapper of ABC News has the Obama is a Seekrit Mooslim crowd all fired up again.
“During a conference call in preparation for President Obama’s trip to Cairo, Egypt, where he will address the Muslim world, deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Denis McDonough said “the President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to — or before he’s been able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world — you know, growing up in Indonesia, having a Muslim father — obviously Muslim Americans (are) a key part of Illinois and Chicago.”
“And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. And so there’s got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.”
Well there you have it, conclusive proof that Barack Hussein Obama covered up (with the support of the liberal, leftist media) his Muslim heritage during the campaign, and now he is saying that America is a large Muslim country, letting slip his future plans for forced conversion of us all to Islam, no doubt.
Or maybe he is trying to improve our relations with the Muslim world by telling them that we are no longer on George Bush’s “crusade,” and that American foreign policy is no longer “either you are with us or against us.” Nah, must be the first explanation, not the second.
Cue the comments from the nutjobs on the far-right web sites in 3…2…1…
The American Liberal Media would put HITLER into office today if he were running for President.
Obama’s Socialism is as close to Hitler, as Hitler was close to Joseph Goebbels
Anyone want to take bets on the exact date that re-education in the USA about Islam becomes mandatory from the Federal government? August of this year? (too soon?) February of 2010? (still too soon?) How about May of 2011?
Never forget the Muslim saying “War is deceit”. Barack Hussein (don’t forget that BOTH names are Arabic) is at war with America. He and his henchmen are succeeding in their destruction of the US.
If he had his way we would have 10 million rag bags in the USA. A complete and total loser, liar and charlatan. I say we make the USA a muslim free zone, starting with the mullah obamaham!
He has lost all touch with reality. He needs to be removed from office.
He bowed to a Muslim king and now he’s bowing to his Muslim people. Hail Hussein Obama, Muslim King of America!!
We have to realize that the lamestream media is now the State-Run Media, and they’re in the tank for this guy. Of course, BHO’s reckless and irresponsible comment will be glossed over. He is all for the destruction of the United States and its customs, culture, and freedom as we have known it.
As if there wasn’t enough panic coming from the Republicans in D.C. (along with some Democrats like Harry Reid) about detainees from Gitmo being re-located to American suburbia, now comes the obligatory ‘Social Security is going broke’ myth from one of the usual suspects on the right, Robert Samuelson, columnist for the Washington Post.
”The recession had made everything worse…trust funds run dry; promised benefits exceed dedicated payroll taxes…retirees would scream. Hospitals might shut.” Chicken Little Samuelson cries.
Mr. Samuelson’s solution?
“It’s increasingly obvious that Congress and the president (regardless of the party in power) will deal with the political stink bomb of an aging society only if forced. And the most plausible means of compulsion would be for Social Security and Medicare to go bankrupt.”
Good idea, let them both go away, paving the way for another all-time greatest hit from Samuelson and his fellow travelers, privatization. (Note: the preceding contains sarcasm).
Just a couple of problems with the panic scenario. One, Social Security isn’t going broke. Two, the fiscal outlook for Social Security and Medicare are completely different. Of course the privatizers know this, they just like to lump them together to make the numbers bigger and scarier.
“About a decade ago, conservative and libertarian economists who oppose Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements came up with a clever rhetorical strategy. They would calculate the gap between the payroll taxes that pay for these programs and estimated costs over time. But there was one problem: The gap isn’t all that scary, at least in the near future.
So in order to frighten the American people and their elected leaders, deficit hawks cite the sum total of Social Security’s “unfunded liabilities” over 75 years. But even this — a paltry $4.3 trillion over three-quarters of a century, according to the 2008 report — isn’t sufficiently terrifying. [So they combine Medicare and SS]
[This] produces a suitably spooky 75-year shortfall of $42.9 trillion. And if this is not alarming enough, deficit hawks can cite the truly apocalyptic figure of $101.7 trillion in combined “entitlement” spending over an infinite time horizon.
The anti-Social Security lobby always presents the “unfunded liabilities” of “entitlements” in scary dollar terms, rather than as percentage points of GDP. Here’s why: Over the next 75 years, the Social Security shortfall at most hovers around 1 percent of total U.S. GDP over that same period.”
Samuelson claims that Social Security will run out of money by 2037. Never mind the fact that this projection is based on an annual economic growth rate of 2.6% and the average annual growth rate since the Civil War is nearly 3 percent.
At a rate of 3%, Social Security is solvent for 75 years, not 28.
Even using the conservative estimates, an increase in the payroll tax from 12.4% to 14.4% would completely eliminate the shortfall.
Medicare is a problem right now. But President Obama’s proposed health care reform would go a long way towards solving it.
“Medicare is entirely different. It’s a monster. But fixing it has everything to do with slowing the rate of growth of medical costs — including, let’s not forget, having a public option when it comes to choosing insurance plans under the emerging universal health insurance bill. With a public option, the government can use its bargaining power with drug companies and suppliers of medical services to reduce prices.”
So you see, no need to panic, Republicans. Resume focusing on KSM being your next door neighbor.
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